Kickstarter… grrrr….

As much as I am a fan of Kickstarter (and I am a fan), sometimes the process can really frustrate me. I know and understand that when you back a product (usually a game for me) on Kickstarter, you are putting your faith in a company and effectively providing capital for the completion of the product. This means you are essentially along for the ride with the manufacturer, subject to all the perils and pitfalls of creating, producing and releasing a game. I get it, but up until now I have been pretty lucky and received all the things I have backed in a pretty timely manner. Part of this is because I have a policy of only backing stuff that is (a) close to completion, and/or (b) by an established company, preferably one that has delivered Kickstarter projects on time before, and/or (c) has a release date in the not-too-distant future.

Today I am a bit down / annoyed / grumpy (choose one or more) because I received an update telling me a Kickstarter project I backed in September last year and was meant to be delivered in May this year will not be available before November. That is a full six months after it was expected to be released and more than a year after I put my money down. I understand that a fair bit of this is out of the game producer’s control, but they cannot be entirely blameless. They had an original plan and goal, and telling me the due date has been pushed back because the Kickstarter was “so successful” is kind of a kick. It was so successful because people like me put money down because we expected to have product in our hand next month, not Christmas. I’m not naming the company, because, as I said, it’s not entirely their fault and they are working hard to provide “something” for backers while we wait. But it is annoying.

This will certainly influence the way I evaluate and back Kickstarters in the future.

6 Comments

Interesting perspective. I’ve backed a couple of things on Kickstarter (literally, two) and I haven’t felt quite as invested as you I don’t think. One was an album a friend is making with her dad, the other a film (The Illusionists) about body image. In either case I didn’t pay that much attention to when they’d pledged the project to be finished. But you’ve given me some helpful info on how people use/view Kickstarter – interesting stuff!

I’ve backed a documentary and don’t really mind when it comes out – it was a small investment for something I thought looked interesting. A year or more is not a long time when we are talking about a film (the Veronica Mars movie funded through Kickstarter will not be ready for a couple of years). The Kickstarter I wrote about today was a product – a thing I will hold in my hand and literally play with – and I invested more than $100 (I hope my wife doesn’t read this!). A product that was already well under development. I am more disappointed than anything else, as I am genuinely excited about the thing I backed and was looking forward to it being ready. I am confident that it is not “vapour ware” – the producer is well established and have completed successful Kickstarters before – but I wish things had turned out differently.

It is a great way for artists, creators and companies to gauge the public’s interest in a product before investing a lot of money. It also doubles as a “pre-order” system, as people basically pay out their money months (or years!) before the product is ready. You do need to be careful, research the company and product and never spend more than you think the product is actually worth.

It’s one of the problems that when things go wrong, the only flexible area is the schedule? Because Kickstarter places such an emphasis on goals& deliverables, does it mean a project feels the need to deliver the ‘pure’ product? I wonder how many KS backers would except a lesser product on schedule?

It’s not about a lesser product, but (in the case that frustrated me), the original game that was backed has been held up while they produce all the bits for the bonus stuff that was made available because of the success of the Kickstarter. I think it depends on how the company handles the “add ons”. Sedition Wars (by Cool Mini Or Not and McVey Studios) broke the releases of the bonus stuff into “waves”. Yes, the first bit, the actual game, was a little late, but not unreasonably, and now we wait for the second waive of “bonus” or “extra” stuff. Evil Hat Productions actually had it built into the Kickstarter that you could choose to receive each item as it was produced / became available (but had to pay for shipping on each item), or wait until everything was ready (and only pay for one lot of shipping). There are ways around these scheduling problems, but they need to be addressed early or before the Kickstarter goes live, I think.